Sunday, November 3, 2013

Goal Analysis: Darren Helm's Comeback Breakaway Spectacular!

I know, I know. I said yesterday that we should not expect much from Darren Helm in his return. Now I'm going to break down his first goal back because why not? Hockey is the best.

If you haven't seen the goal yet, or just want to watch it again (and again, and again, and again), here it is:

Okay, so there's not a whole lot of hockey things to break down, but hey, this was such an awesome moment that I'm going to keep going anyway. Deal with it.

Here...we.....GO!

Pretty innocent looking play right here. The Oilers dumped the puck in on Mrazek, and he easily directs it towards Alfredsson. There's only one Oiler on the forecheck at the moment, so the Wings have time to head up the ice. Cleary curls to the center for a breakout pass while Helm turns up the left wing.

Edmonton's left wing come in to put pressure on Alfie, so he attempts to get the puck to Cleary (I'm not convinced Cleary touched the puck, but as of this writing, nhl.com still has an assist to Cleary, so we'll go with it). The puck either deflects off Cleary or bounces over his stick. Either way, the puck continues towards the Wings blue line.

Whether Cleary deflected it or not, the puck thankfully is bouncing. The third Oilers forward is in the proper defensive position here. He tries to intercept the pass, but the puck is not exactly easy for non-Datsyukian players to get when it's in the air like that. We have Datsyuk. You don't. Hash tag winning. Anyway, so what happens next?

The puck clears the Wings zone and is still bouncing. Again, Edmonton is in good defensive position, with Petry (GO GREEN!!) back to make the safe clear back into the Wings zone and because it's a Wings goal analysis post we know that didn't happen. Petry can't stop the puck, and with only a few feet between him and Helm, it's not even close.

The puck is now Helm's for the taking. Not much left to break down here, let's just take a look at how fast Helm pulls away and is able to get a clean shot with no back side pressure.

(this looks to be about the time Petry loses all of his "give-a-fuck")

LOOK AT THAT FACE HOLY SHIT TOTES ADORBES!!!!!

And now:

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So awesome. In summary:

Mrazek makes a smart play on the dump in and plays it to Alfie

The Wings have minimal pressure at first so take time to head up the ice

The puck is bouncing (possibly because Dan Cleary tipped it)

The Oilers are in proper defensive position but can't handle the puck

Darren Helm is dangerously fast

That's all for this one, folks. Yell at me on twitter (@KevinN37) if you'd like to see another goal analyzed and tell Michelle (@Slapshot0al) that Petr Mrazek got his first NHL shutout because FRK YEAH MRAZEK! Then follow the @BlueLinePatrol account because you don't want to hate puppies, do you?